Jibba

First question:It's about the combination of verbs. According to lessons, a verb should be in い form to be able to combine it to another verb. For example:

あう >>> あい + New VerbBasic Form >>> Change う to い then add the new verb

Now my question is, what should be the form of the new verb? And can you please give some examples of combined verbs 'cause I honestly can't think of any. ありがとうございます！

I'll try help a bit, the " いform" of the verb is known as the verb stem. The sound does not always end in い. For example, when you have a word like たべます, to find the stem you drop ます, so たべ is the stem, and similarly the stem of はしります (to run) is はしり.

I don't know combined verbs as a native speaker would, but for learners the ones I have been taught that are added to the Verb Stem are:

1. Verb Stem～はじめる* (to start) eg: はしりはじめる (to start running)

* はじめる, is used for a controllable change, For a sudden or uncontrollable change you useVerb Stem～だす eg: 雨がふりだした。(It suddenly began to rain, notice が, ~だす is always used with が) In the 'start running' example, if you wanted to suggest that you were being chased or were running away from something then you could use: はしりだす

2. Verb Stem～つづける (to continue) eg:べんきょうしつづける (to continue studying)

3. Verb Stem～おわる (to finish) eg: たべおわる (to finish eating)

4. Another one I know is Verb Stem + すぎる, which is used to indicate that you have done something too much. eg: しんぱいすぎる (to worry too much) or たべすぎた (ate too much)

Second question:It's about the "while (verb)" thing. Again, according to lessons I found on the net:

My question is about the pattern of the sentence, for example I want to translate this sentence:

She is dancing while laughing.

Which verb comes first?

This is the Verb Stem + ながら pattern, the order of the the verbs depends on which action is more important. The secondary verb is added to ながら.In your example, i'll say dancing is the primary (more important) action so the secondary action is laughing therefore it'll be:かのじょはわらいながら、おどっている。(She is dancing while laughing, or literally While laughing, she is dancing)

Another example would be:Ipod を ききながら、しゅくだいをする。(While listening to my Ipod, I do my homework)

Doing homework is the primary action, therefore ながら is added to listening. If you wanted to make it seem that you weren't really doing homework and were mainly listening to your Ipod, then you would swap the verbs around.

Hope that helps, If you want I could scan some of the notes/handouts my Japanese teacher gave on these two grammars (or others which I have learnt), they are quite detailed.

320x200

Mainstream Artist

Posts : 1113Gender : Join date : 2010-07-22

Often I hear people saying something that sounds like "いいよ,いいよ" when they're reassuring someone that something is ok/fine. Is this the correct spelling? If it is, does it literally mean "good,good" with the よ adding emphasis?

Jibba

how do i express necessities?Ex. I need a car. (with noun)I need to go to school. (with verb)

are there any special conjugations? or i just use the verb for "need" ?

thanks again!! :D

Let's see...I need a car would just use the verb いる (to need)So sentence would be くるまがいります.

For I need to go to school, you could probably literally say that with 学校に行くことがいります。(doubt that's even right)But I reckon, the best way to say this would be, I must go to school, which uses the なければ ならない/ いけないgrammar.

I must～なければなりません (polite)～なければならない (plain)

You must～なければいけません (polite)～なければいけない (plain)

To put a verb in this form, you take the negative plain form of a verb (I'm assuming you know this already)eg: 行く －＞ 行かない

With the verb in plain neg. form, you drop the ない and add なければならない. So to say 'I must go', it's行かなければならない。

So for your original sentence, 'I must go to school' or 'I have to go to school'.It would be学校に行かなければならない。

Say if it was your mother telling you that 'You must go to school' or 'You have to go to school'It would be学校に行かなければいけない。

You might have already heard the very casual form of this grammar in anime or songs without realising it. As なければいけない is a mouthful to say, in casual speech, it's usually shortened to ～なきゃ。eg: 行かなきゃ (I must go)A common one in school based anime is, いそがなきゃ (I must hurry)

tenjounokaze

Indie Artist

Posts : 447Gender : Join date : 2010-11-03

Jibba wrote:For I need to go to school, you could probably literally say that with 学校に行くことがいります。(doubt that's even right)

Jibba, 要る as a verb cannot be used this way - however, if you're trying to emphasize "the need" to go to school (in English for example, "There's a need to go to school/It's necessary to go to school")、you can say:

学校に行くことが必要（ひつよう）です。

Jibba wrote:I must～なければなりません (polite)～なければならない (plain)

You must～なければいけません (polite)～なければいけない (plain)

A note on the difference between ならない and いけない: translating them both as "must" is not quite correct, and it does not matter the subject (I or you) - いけない is the less serious of the two, and is more comparable to "have to". ならない is perhaps the most emphatic way to express necessity in Japanese, which makes it comparable to the English "must".

chiy102 wrote:I wanted to express something like this: I saw SCANDAL for the first time when they performed Shunkan Sentimental (with Elisa) on Animax Musix Spring 2010 on TV.

I have difficulty trying to phrase it, this is what I came up so far: テレビ番組 Animax Musix Spring 2010 で瞬間センチメンタルの演奏 (with Elisa)を初めて見ました。

Chi, the way you have your sentence there, you are saying You first saw a performance of Shunkan with Elisa on the TV program of Animax, which is different from what you're trying to say, I believe. Paladinoras' sentence is a bit closer, but a little unnatural. In the uniquely Japanese practice of reversing the sentence order, a very natural sentence would be:

Paladinoras

Indie Artist

Posts : 593Gender : Join date : 2010-05-22

Yea, honestly I haven't been practicing my Japanese sentence structures as much as I'd like. I listen to a lot of Jap songs so I can pretty much tell what feels natural and not, but meh, I'm not a natural Japanese speaker, so I really can't be sure.